New Enfeebles

[Supersun]

I actually pictured Confuse differently myself as sort of an upgraded form of paralyze.

Confuse: Monster has a X% chance of being countered every attack.

(x% obviously varies on your Mnd/Int vs mobs Mnd/Int)

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Either way if SE does decide to make us a true enfeebler they HAVE to give us a way to actually reduce damage from a monsters TP attacks (besides Bio). Sure Slow somewhat does that, but let's be honest, compared to how fast a monster gains TP from players hitting a monster reducing the monsters attack speed hardly affects its WS frequency.

I mean look at our 3 main enfeebles. Paralyze, Slow, and Blind(sort of). NONE of these reduce TP damage in the slightest except for maybe blind for a physical TP, but then again if you have a tank that can actually evade it'll probably be a ninja that has an enfeeble JUST as powerful as Blind II (unless you saboteur it). All these really do is reduce the monsters DoT damage and when is a monster's DoT really a threat. 99% of the time it's the TP moves that are going to be the issue and Red mage doesn't have a single viable way of stopping those. So yeah, sure we are the masters of damage reduction enfeebles, but that really doesn't say much when we can't even reduce the damage from the most dangerous part of the fight.

[Merton9999]

I like Seriha's Regress the best. Although, I'd call it Discord a la FFVI. I'd make it potent and accurate with a very long recast and a very short duration, say 10 seconds. The point is that the whole party would have to pay attention to the window in which Discord was active so that anything that may be successful or super potent when the mob was 10 levels lower would be targeted for that time period. I'd like to see this potentially able to land enfeebles on the mob that wouldn't land before, and you'd have to have multiple people covering them because the RDM couldn't have time to cast all of them in the short window.

My point with this is to give RDM a spell that potentially makes everyone's attacks stronger and more accurate for a short period, one others would have to pay attention to, and one that we wouldn't be required (unable) to cycle due to recast. I agree we don't need more cycle spells. That's why I'd like to see some special case potent enfeebles like this.

To me Addle in some way was an attempt to address the most common complaint, that any remotely challenging mob is immune to any enfeeble that would matter. Of course any tough casting mob would be immune to Silence. So, introduce an enfeeble that is like 1/10 of silence and make it very accurate. Some people want more out of it but I actually like Addle.

In that respect I'd go with a Confuse/Inhibit to mess with TP usage and TP gain in some way that isn't as potent as, say, Amnesia, which would of course be resisted by every mob that mattered.

[Supersun]

mob was 10 levels lower

I'm not sure you realize just how broken that would be lol.

[Merton9999]

I'm sure I realize how broken most things are nowadays. And with anything, you can mitigate "broken" in a million ways. I think a ten second window is reasonable. Or lower the level by 5. SE can play with the numbers.

[Supersun]

The only issue that that a buff in this fashion practically begs to be abused with Zerging. I mean -10 levels would have your heavy DDs smacking most HNMs like they were TW rabbits in Ronfaure.

If procing didn't exist this would just be one more reason that the best way to kill an NM is an alliance full of DDs.

By making it less potent and more active for longer you add a very valuable thing. A debuff that makes blood tanking more viable. There are really only a few ways to actually take less damage from a monster and reducing its level is one of the best. If the buff only lasted 10 secs it loses out on the potential to be a great tool to help Plds take less damage helping them close the gap between blood and blink tanking.

Sure, it sounds nice and all making it potent but short that it would encourage team work, but it would curve the game even further towards DDs being the only viable solution to killing NMs fast, and make tanking even less viable.

[Merton9999]

I definitely see what you're saying. I guess the idea that something strategic could be abused for zerging is not really something that bothers me in the brew era, and I've been bored with long PLD tank battles for years. But then again you'd be able to use Discord outside of Abyssea, where my mind is currently stuck, and I get the feeling most people are wanting to go back to the classic setup.

In the end I really wasn't aiming for zerging, just the idea that RDM had a powerful debuff that didn't need to be cycled and had to be coordinated with the group, unlike all the rest of them. I do see that a longer lasting and low powered level down spell would promote classic tanking, but I'd still go for a small window, long recast, maybe just less than ten levels down

[Supersun]

I can see where you are coming from. It would be nice to have a strong enfeeble that only lasted a short time. Though the level correction spell might not be the best choice for that through. Other spells I could certainly seeing made like that though.

There is 1 concern I have though, chainspell. What was originally intended for 10 secs can now be used up to a full min. Certainly reducing the monsters level for a full min by any significant amount would be kind of ridiculous lol. If they made a short but super powerful spell they would have to balance it with chainspell in mind. I mean we've already seen what happened with stun and it would be nice to not make the same mistake lol.

[Seriha]

I was thinking 3-5 levels with it, myself. Just enough to maybe shed some MACC issues, helping blood tanks some, and maybe knocking a pesky evasion bonus trait off a THF type or something. The loss of STR/DEX/VIT/etc. won't mean a whole hell of a lot (After all, we don't clamor for Absorb-X from DRKs), but it's just kind of icing. Calling it Discord or whatever would be fine with me, too. Hell, the names don't matter to me at all, just what they do.

[Supersun]

The main benefit from level reduction would be the reduction of level difference on pDIF. Shedding 3-5 levels would increase DD damage quite a bit just from that.

[Seriha]

Either way, if SE's afraid of zergs, they've got options. See: Glavoid or any annoying mob that'll likely be stun immune and have phases of absorption.